Amusement Park Negligence

$2,071,735 structured settlement - Amusement park negligence - failure to maintain amusement ride - harness fails - substantially resolving facial injuries - displaced bilateral tibial fractures - displaced right fibular fracture - bilateral ankle fractures - body cast for most of the summer - psychological difficulties.

Monmouth County

This action involved an infant plaintiff, who was ten years of age at the time of the incident.  The plaintiff was a user of the defendant's ride while his camp visited the park.  The ride moves in a 360 degree angle with one individual using it at a time.  The participant is secured by a body harness and ankle straps.  The plaintiff contended that the defendant negligently failed to properly inspect and maintain the rife, resulting in his falling from the harness and being secured only by the Velcro ankle restraints, while the ride continued for five to ten seconds.  The defendant maintained that it properly inspected the ride and complied with all state regulations.

The plaintiff contended that after he detached from the harness and was kept in place only by the ankle straps, various parts of his body, including his face, struck stationary objects, and that his face struck portions of the adjacent fence repeatedly.  The infant plaintiff, who suffered extensive facial lacerations, did not sustain facial fractures.  The facial wounds substantially resolved.

The infant plaintiff required the use of a body cast for most of that summer.  The plaintiff contended that he felt a significant emotional reaction in the months following the accident, but generally internalized it.  The plaintiff would have maintained that the emotional condition continued to become progressively more pronounced and that he began to develop nightmares and anxiety and depression regarding the incident that continued.  The plaintiff did not undergo psychotherapy.  The plaintiff would have presented an expert psychiatrist who would have testified that the infant plaintiff suffered the reaction as a result of the incident and who would have related that it was not highly unusual for a youthful individual such as the infant plaintiff to repress his feelings for some time.  The psychiatrist would have offered a guarded prognosis.

The defendant would have maintained that the plaintiff's claims of an emotional overlay that was related to the incident should be rejected, pointing to the delay in the manifestation of symptoms.  The infant plaintiff was diagnosed with unrelated ADD between the time of the incident and the claimed manifestation of emotional injury that was related to the amusement park incident.  The plaintiff's parents would have testified that they wanted their son to move on and that they did not, therefore, press him to talk about the situation earlier.

The case settled prior to trial for the primary policy limit of $1,000,000.  $2,071,735 was the payout in the structured settlement.

REFERENCE:

B.P. vs. Blackbeard's Cave, et al. Docket No.: MON-L-4263-04.

Attorney for plaintiff: Charles A. Cerussi of Cerussi & Gunn, P.C. in Shrewsbury, NJ and Garden City, NY.